renting advice - URGENT

[percival]

Brits, renters, landlords (lilac_bearry?)

My landlady hasn't set a time yet for the final walk through. She has been suggesting repeatedly that we do not need to be present for that walk through, but we would very much like to be, because we want to have a chance to listen, discuss, and explain. We also want to be given the opportunity to address any complaints she still might have after we've replaced a tatty old window pane (the putty that held this frame was CRUMBLING) and repainted 50% of the walls and cleaned the place from top to bottom and polished all the furniture.

Can we withhold the keys until we have our deposit back?
I need to know this before I next speak to her, which may well be Saturday morning.

She knows she can only reach us by e-mail, given that the phone only gets switched over on Saturday.

Comments

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

Maria, you absolutely MUST be there when she does the walkthrough. We did a long-distance move in 1987, the year after we got married, and were not around when the landlord came through. We had scrubbed everything as well as we could AND we hired a professional cleaner to clean the carpets. Landlord kept the deposit, saying we had trashed the apartment!!!! We didn't have time to go down to Chicago during the week to fight him. We tried small claims court but could never get the notice served to him because we only had a postal box address for him and he only used that to pick up the rent checks once a month. So if you are actually living in the same city as your old apartment, do your best to be present. Good luck! *hugs* Anne

[perceval.livejournal.com]

What cheek!

No, we are going to take photographs of the place to document its state.

We also have friends in the same city that can testify for us.